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Premieres

The Dublin Film Qlub's programme is always unique, designed to bring to you exciting films which are not being shown elsewhere. In addition to this, we have also managed to show a number of Irish Premieres and Exclusive Irish Screenings...

A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT (1914)

IRISH PREMIERE OF RESTORED VERSION

This is the earliest lesbian feature film ever made, the earliest gay feature film every made, and the earliest trans film ever made! [The earliest surviving one, that is] Although it was intended as a mainstream film (no kidding), the movie was never shown in commercial Irish cinemas. We rescued it from oblivion and brought to you a recently restored copy by the silent film specialists at Harpodeon in the USA.

In the short article introducing our Silent Season which you can read elsewhere on this site, called "Camera! Action! Silence!", we said that: "While some gay films from the silent era have been lost, many have survived. They are laying around, half-forgotten, waiting for our generation to take them up, and let ourselves be entertained, impressed, and inspired. " In January 2012, the modern silent film The Artist became a sensation around the world creating a boom of interest on the early films of the history of cinema. The Film Qlub took a considerable risk in programming a full season of gay silent and pre-code films when silent films were far from trendy (research for our Season began in 2007), and when most people believed that there had been no lesbian and gay films of note made in the period. 10 thrilling sessions later, we had proved that the opposite was true, after showing many magnificent, moving, and stimulating films which deserved to be discussed and celebrated. Some people who had never seen a silent film came to our screenings with an open mind, the club members fully supported what we were trying to accomplish, and the season was a success.

One of the most important lesbian films of all time, and one of the greatest films of all time, Leontine Sagan's Madchen in Uniform had not been screened in a cinema for many many years, due to a convoluted copyright and screening-permission history which made it almost impossible to secure clearance. Bigger organisations than us, and more important international film events than a humble film club such as ours, had attempted to screen this film, and had failed. We persisted, and tried everything short of learning to speak German. The effort paid off, and we were finally able to show Madchen in the Qlub, attracting interest far and wide for the screening of this extraordinarily beautiful and politically hard-hitting film.

Frank Ripploh's cheeky flesh-feast Taxi Zum Klo was the subject of a major European re-release in 2011, just a couple of months after we had announced that this then half-forgotten film would be in our programme for Season Two... We were as always keen to show lesser known films which were out of radar, so the re-release interfered with our plans! However, as it turned out, the film was shown in the UK, including a screening in a Belfast cinema, but it was never re-released in the south. The Film Qlub's screening of Taxi Zum Klo was the only one in the Republic of Ireland to coincide with the re-release (it was shown in the IFI in Dublin two years later in 2013). The controversial film brought much attention, inspiring a great open discussion after our screening, and giving us much food for thought.